Genesis 31

The time has come for Jacob to return home. There is trouble in the extended family in Aram, but more than that, God has said, “Return to the land of your fathers.” That needs to be enough for Jacob, but the Lord has also added this word of encouragement: “I will be with you.”

Because of the way that Jacob has prospered, his father-in-law's family is increasingly against him. If he is to leave, he concludes that it must be done with some measure of secrecy. He makes the case to his wives, noting that their father, Laban, has cheated and deceived him. But there is more to Jacob's words than a recounting of the abuse that he has suffered at the hands of a man who should have been on his side. Jacob says, “God did not permit him to harm me.” That is a wonderful statement of spiritual awareness for Jacob. Jacob's flocks increased not through schemes or magic tricks, but through the hand of Almighty God. God directed him in dreams, and blessed his pathway in the land of a man, Laban, who only wanted to take advantage of him. Jacob reminded his wives that the God of Bethel, the God he had met on the way into Aram, the God who had blessed him during all those years of working for Laban, was the one who had commanded that this was now the time to return to the land of his father Isaac.

What would be the response of Rachel and Leah? Would they be loyal to Jacob and to Jacob's God, or would they display a greater loyalty to their father Laban at this critical juncture in the history of salvation? In their united response to Jacob they recount the facts about their father. “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house? Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.” They will stay with Jacob, and go where he goes.

So they left. Just like that. They left Aram and headed toward the land of Canaan without taking the risk of even saying goodby to anyone. But Rachel, Jacob's most beloved wife, took something with her that was not hers. How disappointing that she would steal Laban's idols!

When Laban found out what had happened, he came with his kinsman after them as if he were leading an attacking band of raiders against his own flesh and blood. But this time God spoke to Laban in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

When Laban finally overtook his son-in-law's camp, he still accused him and spoke against him, but he also acknowledged the Word of God pressing him to watch his step in this encounter. He said, “It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’”

But the disappointing fact of the stolen household gods remained between them as a matter that Laban was unwilling to ignore. Jacob unknowingly put Rachel's life in danger by promising the death of anyone who had stolen these idols. Rachel's further deception and the Lord's protecting hand enabled this important woman to live who would yet be the mother of the final son of Jacob, Benjamin.

Both Laban and Jacob expressed their anger and intransigence at this moment of conflict. Laban really wanted those gods, and Jacob was very indignant at the suggestion that someone among his household had stolen them. What a story! God carried His people again through this web of danger. Jacob says, “What is my offense? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? For you have felt through all my goods; what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us two.”

For Laban's part he offers this obnoxious claim like a slave owner who has sold his human wares and still has the nerve to think that he retains perpetual ownership over every last servant he every counted as his own. “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine.”

Jacob's word is better, but it is still very sad when a family has come to this fatal divide. “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” The two men are able to make a pact to stay away from one another, neither crossing a given point between them with the intention of harm for the other.

Is that the best we can expect? But Rachel must live and not be found out. And Jacob must return to Canaan. Generation must follow generation until the gift of Messiah comes. For now, divine protection must be the aim of the Lord's protective providence over His people.

Yet a day will come when the sword of the Lord will come against His own perfect Son for our offenses. Then the protection of God must be put away, and Labans, Rachels, Jacobs, and many, many other sinners all over the world will be saved by the trouble that comes upon Jesus for us. Israel would yield a Messiah, and that Messiah will bring forth a whole new world.

Jacob made a pillar with Laban in order to celebrate and remember a truce. We have the cross and a meal of bread and wine, and we rejoice in the achievement of a perfect eternal peace. Eat, drink, and live in Jesus! In Him, God is with us for the greatest of blessings forever.